I lost one of my favorite
musical artists yesterday, who was responsible for one of my all-time favorite
songs, as well as one of my favorite
albums. I can’t say his death came as a complete surprise – he was 84, and for
quite a few years, his lifestyle was much more rock-and-roll than his music.
I saw him live once at Wolf Trap, probably in the mid-1980s.
It was one of the few times we sat on the lawn. Unfortunately, by that time his
years of smoking had already taken a significant toll on his voice.
WXPN’s four-hour morning show today was right on it,
starting at 6am with “Early Morning Rain” and throwing in several other
Lightfoot classics during the next four hours. Steve, who does the two-hour Tuesday
Morning Mix program on Takoma Park’s
community radio station, went far and above the call of duty, ditching his
previously-planned playlist and replacing it with a nothing-but-Lightfoot
broadcast. (Oddly enough, he also began with “Early Morning Rain”.) For those
so inclined, all of their programs are archived and available for listening for
two weeks; just go to https://takomaradio.org/schedule.
An excellent documentary film about Lightfoot came out a few years ago. It’s apparently available on Amazon Prime and a number of other platforms.
A guy on the lower east side of Funkhouser remarked that he thought Lightfoot was singing Sundown in the wrong key, and you immediately gave the guy the bird. You were NOT happy with that observation. I think it may have been Bob Shoemaker.
ReplyDeleteI thought of you when I heard of Lightfoot's passing. RIP.
On at least one other occasion, you blamed Brent for that. ;-)
DeleteYou're not doubt right about that. Sounds more like Brent commenting on music. Shoemaker was more of a commenter of women's body parts.
DeleteWell said.
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